June 8, 2006
09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2006-24

Hubble Sees Galaxy on Edge

June 8, 2006: This is a unique view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on
to our line-of-sight. Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane
dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's
structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue
disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer
halo. NGC 5866 is a disk galaxy of type "S0" (pronounced s-zero). Viewed
face on, it would look like a smooth, flat disk with little spiral
structure. It remains in the spiral category because of the flatness of
the main disk of stars as opposed to the more spherically rotund (or
ellipsoidal) class of galaxies called "ellipticals." Such S0 galaxies,
with disks like spirals and large bulges like ellipticals, are called
'lenticular' galaxies. NGC 5866 lies in the Northern constellation
Draco, at a distance of 44 million light-years. It has a diameter of
roughly 60,000 light-years only two-thirds the diameter of the Milky Way,
although its mass is similar to our galaxy. This Hubble image of NGC 5866
is a combination of blue, green and red observations taken with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys in February 2006.